Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) or Chronic Lung Disease is a problem that usually arises in premature babies born more than 4 weeks premature (under 36 weeks gestation), weighing less than 3 ½ pounds (less than 1500 grams), and within the first 4 weeks of birth. Premature babies born with BPD have lungs that do not work properly making breathing very difficult. Extra oxygen is required and many times a breathing machine (ventilator) is also needed. Premature babies develop BPD from immature lungs, high levels of oxygen, ventilators, infections, pneumonia, or other environmental sources that cause irritation to the lungs.

The breathing problems in these premature babies must be treated quickly because this can lead to low oxygen levels in the blood affecting the premature baby’s brain, heart, liver, and kidneys. However, healthcare providers must be cautious about being too aggressive because some of the treatments can carry their own risk factors if used too freely or often. Many times the risks must be weighed to see which options are in the baby’s best interest for survival and that can change from moment to moment.

Some symptoms of BPD can include tachypnea, coughing, wheezing, chest retraction, see-saw like breathing, neck stretching, and episodes of blue skin. Doctors confirm the diagnosis and severity of BPD by using a chest x-ray, assessing the length of time oxygen is needed, and determining if lung injury has occurred. Treating BPD is tricky since there is no specific treatment or medicine that gets rid of it.

Treating the symptoms with oxygen, the infections with medicine, and keeping the premature baby well nourished with proper amounts of fluid will give the baby’s lungs the chance to mature and heal. Sometimes a premature baby will seem to exhibit symptoms of BPD, but the diagnosis will be Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS). RDS, also known as Hyaline Membrane Disease, or Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome, is one of the most common lung problems in premature babies. Premature baby BPD (Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia) survivors tend to grow slower than usual, and be smaller than babies the same age.

AMAZING GRACE

Tramp Freighter through The Caribbean

I am sound asleep and then there is a bright light shinning in my eyes. I peer out my small port hole and it looks like the UFO from the ending scene of “Close Encounters” has landed right outside on the water. We are about forty miles from Cuba and about one hundred miles from our next island, Great Inagua. I get dressed and run up top. It is windy and the seas are running in 10-16 foot swells. Standing too close for comfort is a 682 foot cargo vessel lit up like a small city. Off the other side of our boat, about fifty yards away, is a small sailing yacht in distress.

The captain received the SOS at 9:35 P.M., within ten minutes he saw the distress flare arc high into the night sky and altered course to assist. Forty five minutes later a large cargo freighter registered in Oslo, arrives on the scene and provides a lee for the distressed yacht. The sailboat is a 37 foot sloop, tacking to windward enroute to Puerto Plata from Manzanillo. There are four people on board and the Captain has broken his shoulder. The chain plates have come loose from the rough seas pounding the boat. The mast is in danger of falling. They cannot raise any sails and their small engine is not strong enough to overcome the waves and wind to allow them to proceed. We are a 247 foot tramp steamer enroute from Trinidad to Freeport in the Bahamas.

I go up above the bridge on what is called Monkey Island and I have a perfect view. I can hear the radio. The captain of the sloop is freaked out. You can tell by his tone of voice he is pretty sure he will not live to see the dawn. Our captain directs him to motor alongside and we will take the injured party onboard but as he tries to approach, the ocean swells increase and cause his boat to smash into the side of ours. As his 37 foot fiberglass sailboat slides along the side of our steel hull it makes a sickening sound and then the aft stay, which is the remaining wire holding up his mast, gets caught on our forward upper cargo deck and begins to pull back like a bow being stretched to the breaking point.

Everyone is up and on deck watching. There is no moon. Total blackness. No stars. This is high drama. I turn away for a second and behind me looms the gigantic cargo ship blotting out the darkness with its city of light and below that, stretching for a city block in either direction, is the artificial blackness of its huge steel hull. Everyone holds their breath, sure that the sailboat’s back-stay will snap and pull down the mast but at the last second a wave pulls him away and the stay pops free. A sigh is felt all around, but then what is to be done? The waves are kicking his ass and then the Giant Ship radios that it cannot delay any longer. It has to be on its way. When it pulls off station the wind break which it provided is removed and we suddenly feel the full force of the wind and waves. The second mate has now put on a life jacket attached to a long rope and brave soul that he is, he is going to attempt to jump over onto the sailboat with their next attempt but the waves and wind are too strong. It is looking very bad. The Coast Guard is called, but they are 200 miles away chasing suspected drug smugglers and cannot assist. We simply cannot stand by forever. There is the distinct possibility that the mast on the sailboat will fail, the hull will open, and these four men will die tonight. How odd. One hundred people on a carefree vacation all safe and secure, watching with interested detachment as four men in a small boat fight for their very lives. Finally a solution is at hand. We will throw them a tow rope. They fall back behind us and after many attempts finally manage to grab a light line which is tied to a heavier line with which we will tow them. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief. It has been a long night. And then, when it seems over, the tow rope breaks! Just then a large wave picks up the damaged sloop and pushes the small sailboat up into our stern. The broken tow rope quickly wraps around their prop and kills their engine. Now they have no sails, no engine, a captain with a broken shoulder, high winds and ten to fifteen foot seas. You can see the sailing fantasies of many passengers evaporating in the salt spray.

But why, some of the passengers wonder aloud, does a boat registered in New York City have a Haitian crew and a Cuban captain? This is right after we all read about terrorists shooting 60 tourists in Egypt. Maybe these were terrorists. No one has actually seen the captain with the broken shoulder! And no one on their boat seems to know anything about their craft. They aren’t sure where they are and they don’t even know what a GPS (global positioning system) is! Maybe they have just stolen the boat and tossed the real captain overboard? The imagination reels with speculation as the crew tries one last time to get them a tow rope. Finally they get it! We all let out a cheer and by morning light we tow them in to Great Inagua. They even come aboard for breakfast and a shower and they are treated like honored guests. They are extremely grateful. And so it goes…

***

I’m cruising from Freeport in the Bahamas to Port of Spain, Trinidad and back on an old British light house tender converted into a tramp steamer. She has accommodations for 96 and a crew of 40. We plan to stop at about twenty islands. Sounds romantic. It is romantic, but being alone on this trip and being of a somewhat eccentric nature I tend to notice things that others might perhaps let slide. Here’s the other side of the story.

***

The noise and vibration from the engine–(the God that lives three levels below decks and never sleeps), is like some never ending set of Magic Fingers. Your being becomes so in tune with the engine that if its RPM’s change by the smallest number, you wake up. If walking, you stop in mid-stride; if eating, your fork hesitates midway to your mouth. The usual speed is 12 knots, this translates to a slow 200 revolutions per minute. Two large, seven cylinder diesels with pistons like small trash cans turn two ninety foot long stainless steel shafts which in turn rotate two matched bronze propellers each seven foot ten inches in diameter.

After a couple of weeks aboard you feel it in your back, in your bones, in your mind. Constant, like earthly gravity. Like a cross country train doing ninety miles per hour over very bad track, for weeks on end. Like a large plane in severe air turbulence for so long that in the end it somehow becomes normal. You adjust. You nap during the day because deep sleep at night is impossible, especially during rough weather, as you must constantly, at some subliminal level monitor…The Engine. It’s your job! Without your mindful attention, it seemingly might fail, might simply give it up. Like the subterranean God that it is, it demands sacrifice in the form of your attention and it cares not whether you are asleep or awake.

This is an engine that never sleeps, never completely cools down. When I leave this ship they will resupply within twenty four hours and continue on, picking up a new group of passengers. My presence will be missed about as much as a tiny swell upon the surface of the ocean. There will be others, new ears and minds to monitor…the engine. If what I hear is correct these two diesels have been running on and on since the mid 1950’s when the ship was originally built to service English light houses in the North Sea. After the British used it for over thirty years they discarded it and it mysteriously ended up in the Caribbean, still moving through the Great Surround like some mindful leviathan, with the same original two massive seven cylinder diesel engines, the same two, ninety foot stainless steel shafts and the same two bronze seven foot ten inch props turning, turning, turning, since this middle aged old man was a small boy. In storms this gives one pause, as not only do you have to constantly monitor the engine, but–the hull as well.

Sometimes the waves will lift the hull completely out of the water, ( this boat is almost 100 yards long!) you hear the large props bite the air and cavitate and then the bow will break the water again like a giant blue whale and the groan and vibration will oscillate back throughout the length of the ships steel hull. The shudder that is felt is almost orgasmic. How long can this simple steel hull withstand the constant shock. I seem to recall a term called–metal fatigue!

At 3:30 a.m. I calculate, in my half-sleep, that the hull will fracture somewhere just ahead of the pilot house where the decks drop down three stories to the now empty cargo area, which continues down another three levels. That spot is the weak point and that specific point lies exactly twenty feet in front of my head as I lay in my bunk feigning sleep. No time for life jackets, all I will sense is a shift in direction and then a descending blackness swallowing my mind. (The water will be warm. Small consolation.)

The chief engineer is from Bosnia, the other engineer is a Buddhist from Trinidad. We are in good hands. At one point we are offered a tour of the engine room. A small piece of advice. If you are ever on a forty two year old tramp steamer and offered a tour of the engine room…”DON’T GO!”. You really do not want to know. Your imagination, even at its darkest, will paint a prettier picture. The throbbing vibration and the noise…and the heat! What possible compensation could be great enough to inspire individuals to actually seek employment down there? They work seven days a week for five months and then they are given one month off! These are the officers. The simple peons work eight months on and one month off. The mind boggles. For this the crewmen are paid between $150 and $250 per month, plus board and room.

And then one night, I awake with a start! Utter silence, except for the shriek of the wind and the hiss of the waves moving passed the ship’s hull. “God is dead!” I think. I clamor up the stairs to the deck. There are no lights and…no engine noise. Odd sensation. Adrift. Utter silence. I continue to the pilot house and am greeted by a truly odd sight. The captain, first mate and second mate are all standing on the bridge calmly looking forward through the glass, (except for the second mate, he is idly thumbing through a recent issue of Playboy). The silence is eerie. The small emergency battery backup lights have come on. The first mate turns to the Captain. “How come the gyro-compass is out but the other instruments are still working?” The captain shrugs his massive shoulders. “Who knows…”

Slowly, as one, they finally turn and stare at me as if I am an intruder interrupting a private family gathering. Perhaps a funeral. I attempt a casual smile. “I noticed the eh…silence.” “Yeah”, says the captain, “the engine’s stopped.” I want to shout, “But why have the engines STOPPED! I don’t see any dock out here.” but the pervasive calm on the bridge is contagious, instead I merely nod at this sage bit of wisdom and creep away, like a child being gently pushed from the company of adults.

I walk back along the deck, the other passengers are up now, wandering around in the dark inquiring of each other, “What’s happened?” “The engines stopped”, comes the mumbled reply. A restating of the obvious seems to be a natural human response when faced with a crisis. If the ship were actually sinking I am sure people would greet each other on the tilting deck and say “the ship is sinking.”

The winds are picking up, about thirty knots, and we have been motoring parallel to the swells, so now we are taking the wind and waves on our starboard side. It is stupendously–quiet, aboard the old tramp steamer that night. I have visions of Gordon Lightfoot singing about the wreck of the “Edmond Fitzgerald”. Somewhere out off the port side lays a reef or a sandbar, we are now in the Bahamas. This is a zone of shallow water. Andros Island, far off in the distance, might turn out to be our final port…A large powerboat without power is infinitely more vulnerable than a sailboat without sails, for even without sails, a deep keel boat has at least some small way to maintain direction. A large power boat does not and is totally at the mercy of the wind, waves and current.

Eventually, the engines do come back to life. No reason is ever given why they stopped and although each and every passenger inquires why, the captain only smiles and shrugs.

In some ways this voyage is like having a party, only none of your real friends show up, only casual acquaintances and strangers, older strangers, perhaps friends of your parents. You have a pleasant enough time, you eat, drink too much and go to sleep. The next morning you step from your room ready to meet and greet the day and…”My Gawd they’re all still here!” For twenty six mornings, they are all still there, all 140 of them. They always smile and nod and it seems at least half of them even remember my name. After a while it just becomes a blur of tan faces, green islands, and blue, blue water.

This seemed to be an old peoples boat. Out of ninety passengers perhaps twenty were under sixty. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. These were some “activated” elders. These people reminded me of the elderly in the movie “Cocoon” after they went for their swim. Although there were some broken ribs, a broken wrist and assorted cuts and bruises from being tossed about, fully thirty percent of the passengers were repeat customers. A few had returned as many as twenty times! These are what is known in the trade as cruise-aholics.

Watching these elderly couples was very touching. Watching couples who have been together for half a century or more, who have been betrayed by their bodies, who were no longer the flowers of their youth, but who were still, none-the-less, alive and vital, and out there, doing it while still being loving and attentive to their mates, was an inspiration. I heard no bickering on this boat. By now the battles had all been fought and the fallen and the victorious had exchanged uniforms many times. Now the men all seemed extremely kind and the women seemed very understanding. The gentility encountered was moving. These people had raised families and buried close friends and they all seemed to be so–respectful of one another. In fact it seemed as if most of the women really went out of their way to see to it that their mate was happy and well served. Very refreshing. I would recommend this trip for any young couple contemplating marriage. Watch and learn. Observe and see what traits are required and which last the test of time.

I remember sitting on the top deck one night in the dark watching the stars stream over-head, speaking with a couple of elderly women. In the darkness the years dropped away and it was like speaking with immortal spirits telling of past lives and trials long endured. It would seem we are all ageless beings trapped but momentarily in these cumbersome envelopes of flesh.

One couple aboard had been on the road continually for eleven years! They each carried one bag, and had no home, no RV, no storage room secreted away. These people had truly made some sort of break. The only two constants in their migratory patterns were three weeks with a daughter in Newfoundland and three months in an apartment in Turkey every spring. Outside of these two points of reference they were indeed, free spirits roaming the earth.

My roommate for the entire cruise was an interesting man. An Australian. An utter stranger assigned to the cabin by the purser. Retired after forty years in some middle management job with Shell Oil. Now he traveled and supported 27 adopted children around the world. He was a fine example of an Aussie gone Brit. His two conversational rejoinders were “Hmmmmm” and “Yessss”, with a rising inflection over the final three “s’s”, which meant he didn’t agree with a word you said but was much too polite to contradict or argue. An altogether nice man. Extremely neat, tidy, and private. I liked that.

He had but one rather odd habit. Long about five in the morning, in total darkness, without warning, would come a loud mechanical buzzing sound from across the cabin, from the Aussie’s bed, accompanied by wild flailing arms. In the half light streaming through my port hole, it looked as if my roommate was having a death struggle with some alien life form! Or perhaps his pace-maker had malfunctioned. And then suddenly it would all subside and things would grow quiet once again. The first time this happened I jumped up from a dead sleep, “What the hell was that?” Turns out that my cabin mate, being a seasoned traveler and hating to waste time or motion, shaved in bed, in the dark, every morning, before first light with a battery operated shaver and then promptly went back to sleep. After the first time, when I inquired “What the hell was that?”, he explained and said he hoped it wouldn’t be a bother. “Bother?” I answered, “don’t give it a thought.” After the first dozen times I slept right through it.

***

Petit Piton, at Soufriere, St Lucia. Long ago a large volcano blew out its side into the ocean and now, just before the sun is due to come up, we cruise inside this old caldera as the ship’s stereo plays a bagpipe version of the song “Amazing Grace”. As we enter it is dark and I have no idea what to expect and then, as in the opening of some epic movie, the music starts and the bagpipes, with their unearthly drone, actually make the hair on the back of my neck stand and then there are the first rays of the sun and–my lord what an awesome sight. At the entrance, on each side of the opening, are two 2,400 foot plus, pitons or natural pillars. It looks like one of the seven wonders of the world. A huge crater framed by mountains of jungle growth opens before us and we slowly cruise inside.

At the very back of the crater in its own private little Eden is a small, very expensive resort. It is new construction. They are just in the process of opening for business and in front of the place at the waters edge, are huge piles of perfectly white sand. There is no white sand on this volcanic island. These people have imported hundreds of tons of perfect white sand to create a perfect beach within the caldera of this sleeping volcano.

This is where the films “Romancing The Stone” and “Dr. Dolittle” were shot.

***

This morning the Captain gave us a briefing on volcanoes and tsunamis. Apparently an underwater volcano called “Kickem’ Jenney” is set to take out the entire southern Antilles. We are due to pass directly over it this afternoon. It has grown over the last few years to where it is just a couple of hundred feet below the surface. If (when) it blows again, they predict it will break the surface and set off a tsunami that will be truly devastating to the entire region. We are to pass over this future disaster on our way towards a drive-by volcano on the island of Montserrat.

Tsunamis travel at around five hundred miles an hour and can reach 130 feet or more in height as they near a lee shore.

***

It’s ten thirty at night. I am alone on the upper deck listening to the ships stereo system playing a Bob Seger song “Fire Down Below”. It is 74 degrees and the sky is utterly clear. There are so many stars in the sky it looks like we are in danger of sailing off the earth. On my right is the island of Montserrat. Many lights on the island. Heavy ash cloud hovers low over this active volcano. I can taste the sulfur ash in the air. It is beginning to coat the boat. We are only about a mile offshore. Bright half-moon. The seas are very calm. Everyone is one deck below, hanging over the railing, silent, staring…at what? Hoping for…what? A sign of inner earthly life. Everyone is mildly disappointed that no red glow is detected as we slip by in the night. Everyone secretly hoped for an eruption.

***

Pulled into Trinidad today. As you come in towards the harbor of Port of Spain, you smell it first and then begin to see the debris floating in the water. All sorts of junk, garbage and waste. The odor of raw sewage becomes stronger and then you begin to see the wrecks. Six large wrecked ships in varying positions and varying degrees of decay mark the entrance to Port of Spain, Trinidad. The ultimate navigational aid. Nothing gives one pause and sends the eye to the depth sounder as quickly as a 300 foot freighter flipped over on its back looking like a huge wale beached in the mud. There are over 17 large ships wrecked in this harbor.

***

End Thoughts on Travel

Since returning I can observe my trip memories condensing before my mind’s eye like droplets of water on a window. By the end of the month my experience has become a blur and a wash like rain on a moving vehicles windshield. Now that I’m back home, the vehicle has stopped and the moisture of experience is beading up into isolated patterns of memory and image, that in the future will constitute my recollection of a tramp steamer voyage through the Caribbean.

This is a process that everyone goes through in their life, constantly culling, sifting and editing memories to fit in with the imaginative experience. Distilling the gross mass of total input into a handful of concise mind pictures which upon recollection we will call “Our Life”, for above all things we are more than mere adventurers in reality, we are true co-creators.

One purpose of travel is to give us a bushel basket of new experience which we may distill down and drape over our total life experience like a template or a blanket, for future examination. This is certainly nothing that we couldn’t have accomplished at home. Goodness knows we all have more than enough experience in our day to day lives. But habit can often become a predator stealing our attention and keeping us at bay, virtual prisoners in our own reality.

Once we grant ourselves the option of taking time out, going on “Vacation”, we suddenly become lighter, freer, more frivolous beings, more uninhibited, more playful–and more human. But in the end a vacation is nothing more than a temporal refocusing of the life experience. Sort of like taking off our glasses for a while and glancing up from the printed page for a slow glance around the room in which we live. For in the end we all inhabit but one place and that is…the present moment.

There’s an old adage, that suggests; that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. I’m not entirely convinced that all trouble and strife is heaven sent to strengthen our resolve and turn us into unconquerable uber-warriors. There is a corollary to this view however. The absence of challenge or difficulty often breeds weakness. Observe the the life outcomes of second and third generation offspring born into wealth and privilege. Often a recipe for mal-content and disfunction.

Adversity and Opportunity, are they two sides of the same coin? Adversity has two subtly different definitions. One is; misfortune, affliction, difficulty, trouble, hardship, distress and so forth. This definition refers to a negative reference point or actual manifestation of strife the sufferer of the adversity endures. It suggests a pervasive and passive state of existence. There is a hint of victimization apparent with this state of being.

The other definition of is; contrary, against, opposed. As in an adverse decision or finding.

If an adversity is viewed through our perception lens as less of an actual state but rather a set back, not to be endured but rather as an uncomfortable but temporary situation, then the attitude starts to change. This can then become a wake up call or feedback barometer that motivates us to look for the lessons that need to be learned in order to progress.

The language used to identify our adversities can define them. Simple words such as desperation, distress, hardship and crisis can become self fulfilling. If however in the face of apparent hopelessness we choose to revert to more empowering descriptions such as setbacks, blips, challenges or temporary hurdles, then the internal strength and resources to move forward become more easily engaged.

Opportunity is the enemy of adversity. The word itself is enervating. It conjures up visions of hope and self control. In the midst of even the greatest personal devastation we have a choice in how we respond. The problem may not evaporate but with an attitude of hope and orientation towards finding some opportunity from the depths of the despair some progress may eventuate.

Adversity is either a fixed state of hopelessness or an opportunity to re-analyze new options. There is nearly always an alternative way to respond to any situation and our ability to redefine the experience is the first step.

A life bereft of opportunity would indeed be cursed. Transient periods of adversity may however be a blessing, the fuel that propels our motivation.

Today’s crisis may one day be viewed as the catalyst for greater triumphs to come.

Adolescence is the time wherein, physical and emotional changes happen rapidly. These changes cause a lot of stress for your kid as well as yourself. Problems often root from stress during this tough time.

This is a time of confusion for your teenager. And this is also a period of distress between parent and teen. You might want to try to understand your teen first. This is a chance to help your child grow into an independent and responsible person.

Common Problems of Teenagers

Even if it’s getting harder everyday for you to recall your own adolescence, you actually were a teen once in your life. And struggling with acne, bad hair days and body image may have been some of your own problems as well. This is no different from what your adolescent is going through. Expect some mood swings to go along with these types of concerns.

Misconceptions about these physical changes might lead your teen to be embarrassed about the changes going on with their bodies. This could make them feel more self-conscious and concerned with their appearance. Teenagers look to establish their personal identities and may begin to realize that they differ from their peers. This realization may result in episodes of distress.

And if all of this wasn’t enough to think about, dealing with drugs and alcohol is another common teenage problem. Teens want to experience things that are new to them. One of the main goals of the teen years is to gain independence. They might associate themselves with these types of addictive substances to rebel against parental control, feel more grown up or even escape from the stress.

Parenting Guidance for Teen Years

A good place to start is to educate yourself and work to better understand your teen. Parents who know more about the struggles of being a teenager in today’s fast paced environment will cope better. And the more you understand them, the better you can prepare. You should be prepared also to face conflicts as teenagers struggle to find their identity.

An open line of communication is best for you and your child. It might work for you to prevent misconceptions and inform them that these changes are normal. Talking to your child early enough gives you a better chance to have open communication later when you will need it the most.

It’s also a good idea to pick your battles wisely, especially when it comes to teenage problems. Your objections are best left to things like smoking, drinking, drugs and changing their appearance permanently. If teens just want to change their hair color, wear outrageous clothing or use bright nail polish, you might think twice before voicing an objection. Discussing these with your kid and not just making demands will in many cases work much better. Help them to understand how others might view them but listen to their own point of view as well.

Start with Trust

Trust is a very important element in a parent-child relationship. When trust is broken, it’s hard to rebuilt it. Let your teen know that you trust him to do the right thing but, if trust is destroyed he will have to deal with the consequences. Eventually, teens grow into mature, independent and responsible individuals. But it’s true that in the mean time, problems along the way aren’t easy to deal with.

Getting entitled to a justified compensation for the accidental injuries is the best solution to overcome the severe aftermath of an accident. Filing for an injury lawsuit in the court helps to get a legal verdict of the suffered damages. However, ascertaining the amount of compensation is a crucial task and for doing that, it is ideal to take professionalized help. Hence, as the ideal course of action, hiring a reputed lawyer enables the injured person to deal with the court proceedings in the systematic way.

Estimating the Compensation Amount

While calculating the compensation amount, a skilled lawyer minutely examines all the expenses and damages suffered by the victim. The key points related to it are:

• Medical Expenses: This kind of expenses mainly includes the ambulance fees, doctor visits, hospital visits, cost of medicines, in-home care services and many more.

• Pain and suffering: It includes the physical and mental distress due to the injuries.

• Lost wages: This includes any kind of lost work or wages because of the accident and health-care appointments.

• Loss of earning capacity: It refers to the loss of ability to work in the future because of prolonged impairments suffered by the victim.

• Special damage: It covers all the monetary losses due to occurrence of the accident.

The lawyer details about every aspect of the case and depending on the severity and proceedings of the case. They offer adequate legal counsel to the clients and educate them about the possible outcome of the case. However, not all lawyers have the same skill and knowledge and thus, before hiring a lawyer it is beneficial to note certain valuable points.

Specialization

The most crucial point while hiring a lawyer is to check that whether the hired lawyer have specialized knowledge in the particular line of work. Retaining a lawyer who has relevant experience in resolving critical aspects of truck accident cases is the right choice to file a personal injury claim.

Experience

The hired attorney should have sound experience in dealing with personal injury lawsuits related to truck accident cases. Seek for a lawyer who has a good track record in offering successful resolution to the victims of such cases.

Strategic Focus

A skilled attorney must apprehend the case with a strategic focus that leads the case to a proper direction. Hiring a lawyer who suggests a range of alternative strategies to present the case is beneficial to secure the interests.

There are a lot of complications involved with truck accident law. It might involve legal theories related to negligence, product liability and personal injury. Hence, taking specialized consultation from a legal expert helps the victim to prove the legal standpoint.

Heart disease is known as a silent killer. Most of the time its strikes unexpectedly or is detected at deadly stages. However, early discovery is the key. Besides the obvious causes of heart disease, there are additional factors you should watch out for. Here are 5 surprising causes of heart disease and how to prevent it.

Loneliness. While this sound like a cliché, there is an actual truth to it. Based on studies, the risk of heart diseases can go up at least 30 percent due to depression and loneliness. Unintended Isolation and loneliness can cause undue stress, high blood pressure and depression. When this happens certain brain chemicals also change, causing more damage to your body. It’s important to have a good social support and to distress. Also, if you feel the onset of depression, its best to immediately seek professional help.

Regular Drinking. Regular alcohol consumption can not only result in addiction and liver illness, but hardening of arteries as well. Cholesterol level can increase as well. A contributing factor in heart disease. It is okay to drink occasionally, and do drink moderately.

Recurrent Flu. If you regularly have the flu, it’s definitely a cause for concern and it is not just the flu itself. Being a viral condition, a person suffering from the flu can have a severely decreased immune system. That’s why a flu often comes with a cough, cold and other illnesses. Unfortunately, a weakened immune system can be prone to heart disease because the virus can get in the heart valves and canals, which in turn will weaken the tissues.

Lack of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is an important nutrient needed by the body. A lack of the said vitamin has been known to cause heart diseases in some people. The good thing is that vitamin D is easily obtainable from foods like oily fish, green leafy veggies, egg yolks, orange juice and soy milk. You can have yourself checked if the vitamin D deficiency is severe. The doctor will likely provide supplements or vitamin D shots.

Diet Pills. Although maintaining a healthy weight is important, how you do it is significant as well. Diet pills, for instance, can cause more harm than good. Some diet pills have chemicals which can weaken heart muscles and block arteries and lead to heart diseases. Go the safer route: exercise and a good diet. It’s the longer way to lose weight, but it’s still the best. If you really want to take diet pills, consult a doctor. At least a medical practitioner can provide you with an informed choice and sound medical advice.

In almost all cases of general anxiety, the driving factor fuelling the sensations is anxious thinking. Without addressing these intrusive thoughts, there can be little success in eliminating the root of the anxiety.

People who experience anxiety and panic attacks frequently have to deal with the negative side-effects of unwanted thoughts that creep into their minds. These thoughts can range from worries about health, concern over loved ones, or even fears that do not make any rational sense at all but continue to linger in the mind.

Sometimes, the unwanted intrusive thoughts come from previous experiences; other times they are simply bizarre, leaving the person worried as to why such strange thoughts are occurring. In all these cases, the person is upset by the anxious thoughts because they are causing distress and worry. I will guide you through a simple two-step process that is in part related to the One Move which I teach but tailored specifically to dealing with anxious thinking.

Anxious Intrusive ThoughtsTackling anxious intrusive thinking effectively requires a two-pronged approach. To eliminate the negative thinking patterns, there needs to be a shift in attitude along with specific visualization tools.

The Attitude Shift It is not the intrusive thoughts in themselves that cause you distress. It is how you are responding to those thoughts. It is the reaction you are having to the thoughts that enables them to have influence and power over you. In order to better understand how unwanted thoughts come about, it helps to paint a playful visual picture of how this happens. This is a fictional example and will help you better understand how to deal with the issue.

Imagine yourself standing on a street and all around you thoughts are floating lazily by. Some of the thoughts are your own, other thoughts are from outside sources you access such as newspapers, TV, magazines, etc. You notice that when you pay attention to a thought it gravitates nearer. The thoughts you ignore float on by.

When you focus and examine a thought up closely, you notice how it connects to another similar thought, and you find yourself jumping from one thought to the next. Sometimes these are practical, day-to-day thoughts such as bills, chores, etc., or the thoughts can themed by the past or a fantasy/daydream.

In our imagined scenario, you unexpectedly notice a thought hovering in front of you that scares you. This thought is called “Fear X.” X could be panic attacks, ill health, or something bizarre. You find it impossible not to look at the thought, and as you give it your full attention, this causes it to come closer and closer. When you examine the thought, you begin to react with fear as you do not like what you see. You further notice how that initial scary thought is connected to more worrying “what if” thoughts that you also examine in detail. The more you try to escape from the thought by pushing it away, the more it seems to follow you around as if it were stuck to you. You try to focus on more pleasant thoughts, but you find yourself continuously coming back to the fearful thought.

Intrusive Thoughts…

There is an expression of “thoughts sticking like glue.” The very act of reacting emotionally to the thought glues the thought all the more to you, and the more time you spend worrying and obsessing about the thought, the more that glue becomes hardened over time. The thought and all its associated connected thoughts are there in the morning when you wake and there at night when you are trying to get some sleep. The thought becomes stuck to your psyche because your emotional reaction to it is its sticking power. Thoughts are a form of energy, neither good nor bad. It is how we judge those thoughts that determines how much impact they have on our lives. Thoughts need firstly to be fed by attention, but what they really love is a good strong emotional reaction to make them stick!

Thoughts that stay with us are first attracted to us by the attention we pay them and then stuck firmly in place by the level of emotional reaction we have to them.

This is an important point. A thought-even negative intrusive thoughts-can only have an influence over you if you allow it to. The emotional reaction from us is a thought’s energy source. What’s interesting is that either a positive or a negative emotional reaction is fine for the thought. Energy and attention is what it is attracted to. Once you are having an emotional reaction to a thought, you will be regularly drawn to that thought until the emotional reaction has lost its energy and faded away.

For example, if someone you know pays you a very positive compliment, you may find yourself unintentionally drawn to that thought anytime you have a spare moment. You probably find it improves your overall level of confidence and mood throughout the day. Sadly however, we tend to focus less on the positive and more on the negative. We seem to forget those positive compliments all too easily and are drawn more frequently to what might upset us. Taking the opposite example, if someone you know insults you, I am sure that you find the emotional reaction to that thought much more intense and probably very long-lasting.

So the basic pattern of thinking is as follows:

If you are not engaged with an activity or task, your mind will tend to wander to any thoughts that you are having a strong emotional reaction to. In general, as they are the ones that you are probably reacting most strongly to, angry or fearful thoughts seem to surface quickly.

What I am suggesting is that the most ineffective way to eliminate intrusive thoughts is not to try and suppress them. Thought suppression studies, (Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, 1987) have proven that the very act of trying to suppress a thought, only results in a higher frequency of unwanted intrusive thoughts occurring. This recurrence of the thought has been termed the ‘rebound effect’. Simply put: the more you try suppressing a thought, the more the unwanted thought keeps popping up (rebounding).

So how do we begin to tackle this problem of intrusive thoughts?

There needs to be a change of attitude. By a change in attitude, I mean a change in the way you have been reacting to the intrusive thoughts. A change in attitude will quickly disarm the emotional reaction you are having to the fearful thoughts. Once the emotional reaction has been significantly reduced, the anxious intrusive thoughts will dissipate. In the past you have probably tried to rid yourself of the thoughts by attempting to struggle free of them.

The trick, however, is not to attempt to be free of them but to have a new reaction to them when they run through your mind. We can never fully control what goes through our minds, but we can control how we react to what goes on there. That is the key difference between someone who gets caught up in fearful thinking and someone who does not.

The thoughts that terrify us are not fuelled by some unknown force; they are our own. We empower them and equally we dismiss them. When you have an uncomfortable thought you would rather not be thinking, your first reaction is usually to tense up internally and say to yourself, “Oh no, I don’t like that idea. I don’t want that thought right now.” The very act of trying to push these intrusive thoughts away and then understandably getting upset when that does not work causes the thoughts to become more stuck to your psyche.

It’s like saying to your mind over and over again “whatever you do, do not think of pink elephants,” and guess what? You can’t get a single thought in that is not related to pink elephants.

As long as you struggle with the thought, your mind, like a bold child, will keep returning to it. This is not to say your mind is maliciously working against you. It is better to compare the mind to a radar scanner that picks up on thoughts within us that have high levels of emotional reaction connected to them.

To not react emotionally to intrusive thoughts you need to learn to disempower the “fear factor” of the thought; then you must accept and be comfortable with whatever comes to mind. Don’t hide from or push the anxious thoughts away.

So to take an example:

Say you have fear “X” going on in your mind. That fear can be virtually anything your mind can conceive. You know the thoughts are not a realistic fear, and you want them to stop interrupting your life.

Next time the fearful thought comes to mind, do not push it away. This is important.

Tell yourself that that is fine and that the thought can continue to play in your mind if it wishes, but you are not going to give it much notice and you are certainly not going to qualify it by reacting with fear. You know in your heart that the thought is very unlikely to happen. You have a deeper sense of trust and will not be tossed around emotionally all day by a thought. Say to yourself:

“Well that thought/fear is a possibility, but it is very remote and I am not going to worry about that right now. Today I am trusting that all is well.”

What is of key important is not to get upset by the thoughts and feelings as they arise. To avoid any fearful emotional reaction to the fear/thought give the fear some cartoon characteristics.

Imagine, for example, it is Donald Duck telling you that “Something awful is going to happen. Aren’t you scared?” Give the character a squeaky voice and make it a totally ridiculous scene. How can you take seriously an anxious duck with his big feet? This use of cartoon imagery reprograms the initial emotional reaction you might have had to the thought and eliminates any authority the thought may have over you. You are reducing the thought’s threat. When that is done, move your attention back to whatever you were doing. Remember, you are not trying to push the thought away or drown it out with some outside stimulus.

This takes practice in the beginning, but what will happen is that you will find yourself checking how you think/feel less and less during the day, and as it does not have a strong fearful emotion connected to it, your mind will not be drawn to troublesome intrusive thoughts. To put in another way, the thought becomes unstuck and fades away because the emotional reaction has been neutralized. In fact, that is the first step to moving away from anxious thoughts–neutrality. It is as if your mental energy was spinning in a negative cycle while you were caught in the anxious intrusive thoughts. Now, you are learning to stop the negative cycle, and move into neutral (see illustration below).

From this new position of neutrality, you will experience a much greater sense of clarity away from the confusion of an overanxious mind. Moving into this mindset of neutrality is your first step. Thoughts generally lead us in one direction or another -a positive cycle (peace/sense of control and order) or a negative cycle (anxiety/ fear/ disorder). The next step is to adopt a relaxed peaceful state of mind and move your energy into a positive cycle of thinking.

You might have wondered why it is that some people seem more susceptible to worries and unwanted intrusive thoughts than others. You now know the answer to that. The difference is that the people who seem carefree are the ones who are not reacting with a strong fearful emotion to an anxious thought. These people see the same array of thoughts as an anxious person, but they do not make a fearful thought a part of their lives. They dismiss the thought or laugh it off and have a sense of trust that things will work out fine. They see no point in reacting with fear to these thoughts, and that ensures the thought has no power or authority over them. You may feel that you are by nature an anxious person and that you will always react with fear to these thoughts because you have done so for years. That is not the case. Continuous or obsessive anxious thinking is a behavioral habit, and just like any habit it can be unlearned. I have outlined the quickest and most effective way to do this by using a unique shift in attitude. You can undo years of anxious thinking and reduce your level of general anxiety very quickly. All it takes is practice.

http://www.panic-and-anxiety-attacks.com/intrusive-thoughts.html

This article is copywritten material. Any requests for reprinting this article must be made to Joe Barry McDonagh

Unavoidable suffering is a condition of existence, a part of the mystery that shrouds every life. It is usually the result of broken attachments to those we love or the loss of something cherished. It cannot be prevented because death and perpetual change are uncontrollable givens of living.

On the other hand, much suffering can be prevented by making wise choices. But there is so much more unavoidable suffering that we refuse to acknowledge as the expected consequence of the natural movement of life. Of course, there are many things we do to generate unnecessary suffering. Poor decisions lead to catastrophic outcomes. Neurotic guilt visits most of us, and refusing to accept the inevitable (trying to resist nature) adds significantly to the pain of life.

Here is how others have eased their suffering. These approaches can be lessons for your own confrontations with unavoidable distress.

1. Reframe your attitude. Begin by dismissing the following thought from your mind: you have not been singled out to suffer. You are not bad or have bad karma, nor have you done something wrong. No divine being, earthly force, or a run of bad luck is behind it. Legitimate suffering cycles into and out of everyone’s life. Nobody is immune from its ravages. We are brought up in a culture that teaches that no one should suffer. That in itself is a major cause of unnecessary suffering. Acceptance, as difficult as it is, is the only way through this conflict. Know what you can and cannot control.

2. Develop diversion strategies. Planned diversions are an integral part of practicing positive mental health. You cannot continuously suffer without getting sick in some way. Everyone needs ways to shift their attention away from the pain of suffering, give themselves a break from extreme distress, and focus on something meaningful. For example, think of all of the loving people in your life. Spend a few minutes exclusively on them and what they do to express their love. Study the scenarios in detail. Now consider how you feel; you are bound to feel a temporary release from your nightmare.

Use your creative ability to refocus on various activities, reclaim the great energy you dissipate on suffering, and use it in the wise exploitation of the need to replenish. There are literally hundreds of scenes, people, actions, and words that you can use as resources for shifting attention.

3. Discover what you can learn from suffering. At first glance, don’t dismiss this lesson as irrelevant; it can make a big difference in your life. Go on a search (a good diversion strategy) for those who have written about their suffering and what they have learned from the experience. Compare their findings with your own. Are their learnings applicable to your circumstances? How would they deal with what you are going through?

Discover how suffering changes you and how you can find meaning in it. Be sure to read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Your search to learn from suffering is guaranteed to bring you wisdom.

4. Seek those who love unconditionally and respond in all you do from a place of love. Openly share your suffering with those who love without conditions; they know how important it is to be fully present to the suffering of others and your need for a trusted listener. Release the full force of your suffering on them, a little at a time. The vast importance of a loving community cannot be overstated. If you live alone, you must be proactive and reach out. Connection is crucial to healing. Make a vow to give and receive love every day (make it a major objective). Send thoughts of love to others and accept the loving aid offered to you.

5. Practice the ancient technique of relieving suffering by living to give. For centuries relieving the suffering of others was shown to relieve the suffering of the giver; it holds true and is still practiced today. In short, choosing to develop the mindset of caring for and giving to others, inevitably will lead to relieving your deep pain. Never forget the immense power of thoughts. Committing to following through on a thought pattern of giving though hurting will bring dividends beyond measure. You have a purpose and it will transform your inner life in a way nothing else can.

In summary, the three greatest forces for relieving suffering are to (1) find a way to express your deep pain, (2) be willing to help others even as you are suffering, and (3) start your ongoing project of increasing your ability to love unconditionally. The big three have a long positive history of success in dealing with suffering from every imaginable source.

What is happiness? The most ambiguous question posed in the universe apart from “What is love?” is often associated with this question regarding money and whether the more you have the happier you will be. Well, can it? Is happiness for sale? Is there a store at the local shopping centre that trades happiness for some of your hard-earned cash?

Wikipedia define happiness as;

Happiness, pleasure or joy is the emotional state of being happy. The definition of happiness is one of the greatest philosophical quandaries. Proposed definitions include freedom from want and distress, consciousness of the good order of things, assurance of one’s place in the universe or society, inner peace, and so forth…

The first proposal in Wikipedia’s definition regards this very question, “…freedom from want and distress…” So, if money can free you from want then surely it must be able to buy you happiness! Right?

Financial freedom is the state most people chase. The ability to pay your own way with everything without ever having to check the credit card statement in fear and trepidation.

It’s why we set up pension funds, play the lottery, spend more time working than we do playing with our kids. We hope to one day be independent of a boss, of a budget, of any constraint that could limit our desire to be happy. To spend whenever we had the inclination.

Okay. This is just frivoluous spontaneity. It bursts onto the screens of our life for a short time and as quick as it came it goes. That’s a shallow expectation of happiness. I want happiness that survives time. Can money buy that?

If money can buy happiness, how much would I need and how much happy would it make me? I earned a couple more dollars this month on my AdSense account but it wasn’t even a blip on the happiness radar. So how much would I need?

John Silveira’s article “Money can buy happiness” says this…

How much do the experts say is enough? In a study conducted by Andrew Oswald and Jonathan Gardner at the University of Warwick, in Coventry, England, they discovered about 1.5 million tax-free American dollars moved most people into the top 2% on the happiness scale. Their study also revealed that, at the low end of the scale, each $75,000 moves one between 1/10 and 3/10 standard deviations (which is a measure of how statistical data is spread out) up the “happiness” scale.

I know John has a lot of statistical evidence showing that perhaps money CAN buy you happiness but for me the jury’s still out. I know a lot of people who earn less than A$20K per year who are happier than some with dual incomes earning A$100K per annum.

I think it has more to do with contentment and self-identity than it does with the amount of money you have or earn. If you’re striving to have more money and know that you’re not making it this will lead to all sorts of anxiety issues which will deprive you of happiness.

Maybe learning to be content and set achievable goals for our money is a key to happiness?

Grief is something we undergo when someone dies, a loved one moves away, or one goes through a traumatic experience. It is an emotion generated by a loss and characterized by sorrow and/or distress. Grief is a very personal and unique experience, whose etiology is apparent in both life and death experiences.

No two people will grieve in the same way, and most people grieve in their own way and time. Some of us grieve after the death of a loved one:

Some will grieve for a small number of days and then just stop;

Some will grieve for what seems like years and never stop;

Some will grieve for a short period, but will do so time and again based upon situations that arise with life, such as:

1. Weddings

2. Graduations

3. Family events

4. Traumatic events

5. Emotional events

6. Death

Some women grieve at the changes that life takes them through, i.e., menopause, grieving that they are getting older and entering another phase of their lives.

A divorce may be considered a grieving situation. Each spouse grieves the loss of the marriage, or the loss of their mutual friends, or the loss of their house or the loss of their belongings which now have to be split into his and hers. Moreover, if there are children involved, there is the loss of the everyday seeing of the kids by one of the spouses, as well as the pictures and all the things that go along with living with the family.

Consider the couple grieving the death of a child. One parent moves toward others, finding solace in connections and healing in the open expression of emotional distress. The other parent, instead moves toward introspection, is reserved about sharing feelings, and finds the resumption of everyday life most helpful. Despite the commonalities of their loss, each grieves differently because each experiences the loss in a unique way.

While we all have general ideas about how grieving should look, many times it may not look that way, and if it doesn’t, it does not mean the person is not grieving. They are just not doing it in the way that we are used to or understand. How many times do we see a person laughing and having fun ten days after a loved one died, and we think, “what kind of person is that? Imagine, their loved one died, and they are already having fun!” Or, we see a female starting to go on dates right after her spouse has died, and we think, “what has gotten into that girl”? Her husband has just died and she is already going out with guys!” Or conversely, after a divorce, we try to arrange a date for the man, and he says “no,” that he is not ready, since he is still grieving for his marriage. I recently met with a former soldier who fought in Iraq, and he was still grieving the “loss” of his former wife who was sleeping around with everyone. He hasn’t gone out in two years and was still in love with his former spouse.

While we all look at grieving from many perspectives, at some point we all have to move on. If you have difficulty “moving on” please speak with a friend or professional counselor.